After receiving a number of people in Ashdod, I turned to go home. Suddenly, a number of men approached me and tearfully begged me to bless a young woman standing off to the side. She had been diagnosed with cancer, rachmana litzlan, and the doctors predicted she had three months to live at the most. Just then, a large group of men walked out of the Beit Hakeneset and stood in the street, preparing to recite the blessing on the new moon. I, too, lifted my eyes heavenward. “Ribbono shel Olam,” I began, “may You renew this young woman’s life just as You renew the moon each month.”
Two days later, I received a phone call that my prayer had been effective. The day after I blessed her, the young woman took a special x-ray, which would indicate whether there was a chance of her survival via surgery, or if it was too late. Imagine the doctors’ surprise when they studied the results of the x-ray, to discover not a trace of her disease. She was completely fine. Not used to being proven wrong, they sent her for a re-test in another institute. Perhaps the machine they had used was inaccurate. But the second set of results also showed that everything was perfect. This had the doctors stymied. They decided to send her to the third and last institute in the country that had this machine. These results, too, were clear.
The young woman returned to perfect health, bisiyata di’Shemaya. She was a walking medical miracle!
I told the men that this young woman’s recovery came in the merit of the congregation which was reciting the blessing on the new moon at the time that I was asked to give her my blessing. This mitzvah is similar to greeting the Shechinah and was what opened the Heavenly gates for my prayer on her behalf.
